Big News! North Shore Environmental is pleased to announce they are opening a second office in the Fond du Lac area. We are growing and currently accepting employment applications for our Haz Mat Technician position.

This is a labor intensive position that consists of industrial maintenance and emergency spill response functions (Our Emergency Response Service is 24/7). Out of town work and overtime can be expected, as well as being part of our on call rotation.

NEW IN 2018 – Stay tuned for new surprises from North Shore in 2018! As we close out 2017, our sincere thanks for the gift of business and partnership with our clients, colleagues and business associates. All of us at North Shore appreciate everyone’s confidence and loyalty, and thank you for your continued business and support. We look forward to meeting new business associates and providing our services to all. We extend our very best wishes for a successful 2018!

Don’t just take our word for it! See what others are saying about North Shore!I have had the pleasure of working with North Shore Environmental Construction, Inc. (North Shore) in multiple capacities over the past four years. In my role as a regulator for the State of Wisconsin, I regularly corresponded with North Shore regarding emergency spill response in Northeast Wisconsin and state wide. In that capacity, North Shore always responded in a timely and professional manner, was forthright with questions, excellent at problem solving difficult situations during emergency response and with follow through in submittal of spill response reports.

In my new role as an Environmental Project Manager for General Engineering Company, I have had the opportunity to collaborate with North Shore on multiple projects and their attention to detail, customer service, communication, work ethic and follow through, continue to make them one of my go to firms and resources in the environmental field. I look forward to future collaborations.

The General Motors plant in Janesville is being decommissioned. North Shore Environmental Construction, Inc. has set up operation on-site and is cleaning up parts of the 4 + million-square-foot facility.

Read the Gazette article titled “GM ramps up decommissioning of Janesville assembly” which is located here

We are currently accepting employment applications for our Haz Mat Technician position.

This is a labor intensive position that consists of industrial maintenance and emergency spill response functions (Our Emergency Response Service is 24/7). Out of town work and overtime can be expected, as well as being part of our on call rotation.

GREEN BAY, Wis. (WBAY) – North Shore responded to an emergency mercury spill at Lincoln Elementary School in Green Bay. Here is the story from WBAY-TV.

Classes are canceled at Lincoln Elementary School in Green Bay after a mercury scare. Students and staff should not come to the school, and the public is asked to stay off the school grounds, including the playground, until a hazardous materials team has finished its cleanup.

Principal Angela Hager says a student brought a vial to school which a silver substance they believe to be mercury. Hager says they were playing with it on the playground then brought it into the school.

“The students did open up the vial and they were moving it around, so some of it did get spilled,” Nick Craig, Green Bay Metro Fire Department said.

The fire department estimates 3 milliliters (mL) of the metal was spilled — that’s a little more than half a teaspoon.

Students were evacuated around 11 o’clock Tuesday morning after concerns about a possible mercury spill. They were initially outside of the school for half an hour, then sent back inside the building.

About 250 students attend the school on Buchanan Street on the city’s west side.

Students were reunited with their parents late Tuesday afternoon only after each student was checked by a hazardous materials team to ensure they’re mercury-free.

The principal says six fifth-graders, boys and girls, were directly exposed, playing with the substance with their hands.

Hazmat teams were called up from Madison and Milwaukee with newer, specialized devices to test all the students. That equipment picked up elevated levels of mercury on those six students who came into direct contact with it, and also detected it in parts of the school.

The fire department says the safety threshold for mercury contamination is rated a 10, and there were some areas of the school that tested at a 10. Most of the school was a 5 or less.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says when mercury releases toxic fumes and the health effects from low levels of exposure are unknown. Very high vapor concentrations can cause severe lung damage, and exposure over time to low vapor concentrations cause skin rashes, kidney abnormalities and memory problems.

All of the students were kept in a “determined safe area” of the school following the evacuation and were served lunch in the safe area. The district says students were required to be checked by medical personnel, and then each one was tested by a hazmat team.

“With that device they can basically wand kids and stick it near shoes and clothing, and in 30 or 40 seconds it can determine the presence of mercury,” Craig explained.

Students were finally released to parents and guardians around 4:30 — an hour past their usual dismissal. Parents were asked to bring a coat or blanket because the children couldn’t go home with the coat they wore to school.

“I raced down here and I was very upset, I was crying,” Alicia Goodwin, whose granddaughter attends Lincoln, said.

Because mercury contamination was on some of the students’ shoes, those students had to surrender them. Shopko donated shoes for those students to go home with.

“We do not want students to go home and then bring the mercury home if they have any mercury on their shoes,” Hager said.

Fire officials say with such a small amount of the substance, they don’t believe there is a large health risk to the public.

All after-school events Tuesday were canceled, including the winter concert and a cookie/craft event.

IN THE NEWS – North Shore responded to a large diesel fuel spill Sunday, after more than 30 buses had been engulfed in flames at the Dousman Transportation Company in Merton. In total, 35 buses as well as the bus barn were destroyed by the fire .

“Normally if you had a fire, that fuel would probably go up in the fire. A lot of that diesel might have burned up in the fire – but when they`re throwing water on it and it`s maybe coming out of the tanks, it`s also flowing out with the runoff,” Keith Hitzke said.

North Shore estimates that 200 to 400 gallons of diesel fuel from the buses may have contaminated the soil in the surrounding area. NSEC technicians continue to work on the clean up. To view the full story, click HERE

North Shore Environmental Construction, Inc (NSEC) participated in a boom deployment drill at Horicon Marsh. The drill scenario was a release of 50,400 gallons of diesel fuel that entered the Rock River, West Branch and traveled south along the river. Emergency response agencies were stationed at various river banks and locations surrounding Horicon Marsh. No oil or petroleum products were used in this exercise, only the actual deployment of containment boom.

The purpose of this exercise is to ensure that emergency response personnel are trained to respond to a marine spill. Most training and drills are multi-agency led, and attended by local response agencies. The joint response teams for this drill comprised of various Fire Departments, Hazmat teams, Hazmat contractors, EPA, Wisconsin DNR, local businesses and the Oil Spill Response Organization (OSRO) personnel.

The exercise consisted of hands-on boom deployment, which provided local responders with practical training in boom handling, deployment, watercraft maneuvering, and testing of local response capabilities.

The purpose of placing boom in a body of contaminated water is to divert the contamination to a collection point. Booms help concentrate oil and petroleum in thicker surface layers so that skimmers, vacuums, or other collection methods can be used more effectively to remove the oil and petroleum from the surface of the water.

NSEC discussed proper placement of the boom in the river with the emergency response personnel. NSEC had their marine spill response unit on site. Project Managers from NSEC discussed how to use their marine equipment with the emergency response personnel. The marine equipment consists of containment boom, a double drum skimmer, a jon boat and motor and a truck skimmer.

For more information about boom deployment and responding to a marine spill, please contact NSEC.

North Shore Environmental Construction, Inc. (NSEC) has purchased a Gasmet DX4040 FTIR (Fourier Transformed Infrared) gas analyzer. NSEC has now extensively trained its staff on the use of the real-time FTIR and has implemented its use to measure real-time measurement of gasses. This state-of-the-art technology allows NSEC to “take the lab to the jobsite” and to quantify the known gasses and identify the unknown gasses present. This whitepaper highlights the strengths, limitations and modern technology associated with FTIR real-time gas detection, to provide a better understanding of how this instrument can be used for various real-time gas detection scenarios. It also highlights the state-of-the-art in FTIR technology and why this technology is suitable for emergency response scenarios, and some well-respected governmental agencies use this technology.

Background, Strengths and Limitations

The Gasmet DX4040 portable FTIR (Fourier Transformed Infrared) gas analyzer is a highly technical, portable instrument that is capable of performing multi-component gas analysis from ambient air. This portable instrument contains an FTIR spectrometer that detects specific vibrations, rotations and combinations of molecules within a compound by measuring the compounds’ specific absorbance of infrared radiation. Due to the fact that the infrared absorption spectrum is unique to each specific gas molecule and compound, the analyzer can identify and quantify compounds present in the ambient air. Further, it can accurately and simultaneously identify and quantify up to 25 compounds in a matter of seconds. The portable nature of the analyzer allows a technician to easily transport it around a facility or area and measure the concentrations and identify unknown compounds. This makes the FTIR an invaluable instrument for first responders, occupational and environmental safety personnel, and countless other applications.

The FTIR communicates with a handheld PDA that can provide the real-time airborne concentrations of 25 compounds. The FTIR is accompanied with the Calcmet Software which can be used to retrospectively analyze the measured spectra using the Calcmet Software reference library of thousands of compounds. The reference spectrum contains the known spectrum of identified gases with unknown gasses can be compared to identify the specific compound(s) and concentration present. Specific gas libraries include hydrocarbons, organic compounds, and inorganic compounds.

A few strengths of the instrument include that preparation for the sampling is not required, it provides real-time results, and it is portable with battery operation with wireless communication to the PDA. The shortest sampling time for gasses is five seconds and typical response time is less than 120 seconds, the quickness and availability of real-time results allows the field technicians to perform expeditious decision making to protect workers, as well as save time and money. Additionally, the analyzer has stable calibrations which means that no regular consumables are required to maintain the device (no span calibrations required) and no recalibration is required. Further, low concentrations of organic and inorganic compounds can be detected and, as previously mentioned, 25 gases can simultaneously be monitored with more analyzed post-measurements using the Gasmet software spectra reference library.
There are a few limitations to the FTIR, including it cannot be used in wet, extreme heat or cold environments (short term sampling temperature range is 0 to 40°C and the long term temperature range is 5 to 30°C); therefore, it can only operate at ambient temperatures. Further it should be noted that, all gases absorb infrared light except diatomic homonuclear molecules (O2, N2, H2, Cl2, F2), metals (mercury and lead), the noble gases (He, Ne, Ar), and hydrogen sulfide (H2S) which is a very weak infrared absorber; therefore the FTIR is not the preferred or recommended instrument to identify and quantify these compounds. For real-time analysis the compound(s) needs to be previously selected as the 25 reference compounds; however, up to 50 compounds can be evaluated simultaneously from the spectra and additional compounds can be identified and quantified post-measurement using the Calcmet PC software. The use of the PC software requires additional time but can be performed much more rapidly than sending samples for traditional laboratory analysis.

Accuracy, Precision, Stability and Validation

The FTIR maintains a stable calibration, therefore no span calibration is required. A zero point calibration is performed every 24 hours using nitrogen (99.999% purity or higher N2 recommended) or ambient air. There is a 2% margin of error and a 2% temperature drift when the instrument is measuring the samples at varying temperatures but the instrument compensates for these changes. According to Gasmet, the DX4040 FTIR Methodology is accepted by: NIOSH Method 3800, USEPA Method 320, ASTM Method D6348, TUV (German) & MCERTS (UK) 3rd Party verification, and the US Military Edgewood Report. Further the following is a list of governmental agencies and industries that currently utilized the DX4040:

According to the Gasmet, “The key features of the Gasmet DX4040 include a high sensitivity sample cell for lowest possible detection limits and a built-in-pump, which means that there is no need to use a separate sampling system.”

Uses

Also according to Gasmet, “The DX4040 model analyzer is designed for on-site measurements of various organic and inorganic compounds at low concentrations in ambient air.” The FTIR is capable of detecting and measuring low concentrations (sub-parts per million) of 5000 plus chemical compounds including the following:

The FTIR is a versatile gas analyzer that can be used for numerous applications and is specially designed for industrial hygiene work and emergency response. The rapid results provided by the FTIR allows technicians to evaluate scenarios in real-time to protect workers and save time and money. Additionally, it is an invaluable tool for industrial hygienists to identify “hot spots” in certain rooms/industrial areas and to evaluate task-specific exposure concentrations. These measurements can allow an industrial hygienist to evaluate peak exposure concentrations that may contribute to workplace exposures and isolate these specific tasks to decrease potential workplace exposures. Further, Gasmet describes the following applications for the DX4040:

NSEC would be happy to discuss and demonstrate the technology for your organization. NSEC maintains the Gasmet DX4040 and a highly trained field technician on a 24 hour, 7-day per week basis to respond and measure a wide-variety of airborne contaminants. Additionally, NSEC has a 40-hour HAZWOPER-trained, on-call Certified Industrial Hygienist (CIH) and toxicologist to assist in data interpretation, sample planning, human health evaluation and regulatory compliance issues for NSEC’s clients.

A Chemical Reaction = A Very Dangerous Situation. Two chemicals that should never be combined were and it created a major reaction inside a tank. The tank exploded. The gas fumes caused irritation and respiratory issues to employees near the reaction site. More than 100 employees were forced to evacuate the premises. North Shore was contacted to cleanup the spill after the fire department sprayed a couple thousand gallons of water at the source of the spill.

Since the gas fumes were an issue and employees had to evacuate the premises, North Shore performed a health and safety investigation to measure the gas level. North Shore brought their portable FTIR Gasmet DX4040 gas analyzer to identify the gas level. The probe of the Gasmet DX4040 was taken to the explosion site by firefighters while the Gasmet DX4040 and technician were positioned outside the entry. Once the gas level was determined, the site was turned over to North Shore to finish the cleanup.

North Shore specializes in hazardous materials response and clean-up and field-based environmental construction. The Gasmet DX4040 can detect up to 25 gases simultaneously providing validated, real time results in 60 seconds or less. It has helped validate cleanup activities and provide confirmation of safe working conditions during remediation work.

To learn more about the Gasmet DX4040, contact North Shore. You can also check out Gasmet’s website by clicking :